Surprisingly, in a small village called Sikka in southern coast of Flores Island, during a field trip to collect barnacle for my research, I found many fresh removal scars of barnacles. What I was thinking is my barnacle already taken by someone! And while looking around for some clues finally I saw some locals “grazing” for barnacles. From them I know they do it almost every morning for their lunch, which usually cooks in a spicy coconut milk. Hmmm… sounds yummy.

Two of some Sikka women “grazing” for barnacles during low tide

Crushed and picked-out, commonly cook in spicy cocconut milk-broth

The softparts inside the shell of barnacle, collected in the bucket

Tetraclita kuroshioensis, hunted for food in Sikka

Thinking about barnacle, most of you would not imagine that this creature could be eaten. This cuisine is very popular in Spain and Portugal, in Chile and also for some people in Japan.  Known as Percebes (read: pertheibei) in Spanish, and in Japanese known as Kamenote Fujitsubo (亀 の 手 フジ ツボ) because it looks like turtle hand (kame=turtle, te=hand). Those names refer to gooseneck barnacles.  While in Chile, a large edible acorn barnacle known as Picorocos.

They taste briny and fresh, very much like a crab meat, so tasty!

PERCEBE in a fish market | photo by fishgeek

PERCEBE, peeled ready to eat | photo by wilynick

How do I cook it? Because the original flavor is generally pretty tasty, just boil in sea water or in fresh water mixed with a little salt, and serve as a snack or an appetizer.

PICOROCOS, large acorn barnacle | photo by robertogreco

PICOROCOS(Austromegabalanus psittacus) | photo by ddanzig

1 Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan
2 Faculty of Biology, Jenderal Soedirman University, Purwokerto, Indonesia
3 National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan* = corresponding author

Abstract

Taiwan is a large island in north western Pacific waters with the sea floor connecting to two major deep-sea basins, the eastern waters facing the Pacific Ocean (to 4000 m depth) and linking to the Philippine Basin, whilst south western waters are associated with the South China Sea Basin (up to 1000 m). Previously, the biodiversity of Taiwanese deep-sea barnacles had not been studied extensively, due to a lack of deep-sea expeditions and sampling. Recently, several TAIWAN deep-sea cruises investigated the biodiversity of the deep-sea fauna of Taiwan and sampling was conducted to depths of 4000 m. The present study reports on the biodiversity of the deep-sea barnacles of Taiwan, a total of 18 species. One species was previously recorded from Taiwanese waters and 17 are new records, including two new species belong to the genera Litoscalpellum and Altiverruca.

Zootaxa 2405: 1–47 (2010)
Magnolia Press
This article is  open access 

FIGURE 19. Altiverruca longimandible sp. nov. A. Maxilla, B. Maxillule, C. Mandible, D. Mandibular palp, E. Lower
margin of mandible, F. Labrum, insert showing fine teeth at cutting edge. Scale bars in μm.